Menu

I know I’m not the first one to say it, but it’s still coming from the heart, Happy Earth Day! So many ideas came to mind of recipes to share on a special day like this, but I decided on a Deep Dish Vegan Pepperoni Pizza. Why? Because pizza was the quintessential symbol of comfort food for me in my pre-vegan days and I really liked deep dish pizza! Even though I thought honoring the earth through a vegan diet would mean pasty skin, crunchy granola and adopting foraging behaviors, I still took the leap. I’ve since learned that a vegan diet can be friendly to the planet…and not too bad on the taste buds too.

Do you ever find yourself absorbed in today’s politics and feel like your voice doesn’t count. That there’s nothing you can do to impact change?

Believe it or not, you can make a difference. According to the World Preservation Foundation report, the best thing you can do to preserve the environment and reduce global climate change is to take on a vegan diet.

That’s what I would call “change you can count on!”

Here’s some interesting statistics from that WPF report:

A vegan diet is 7 times more effective at reducing greenhouse emissions

Carbon emissions related to our diets would go down 87% if we adopted a global vegan diet!

For those of us wanting to save money, a vegan diet would cut the cost of fighting climate change by 80%

And there’s other reasons to consider going vegan (links to resources provided below).

It may take as much as 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of U.S. beef. It only takes 24 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of potatoes.

The number one reason for the destruction of our world’s tropical rain forests (that produce much of our global oxygen) is to create more acreage for cattle grazing. Norman Myers refers to it as the “hamburgerization of the forests.”

In 1999, the economic losses from weather-related disasters was over $67 billion

Overfishing and trawling have led to a 30% decline in coral reefs in our oceans.

Nearly 90% of large ocean predators have been depleted because of industrial fishing fleets (marlin, swordfish, shark, cod, halibut, and flounder).

And if you can eat things like Deep Dish Vegan Pizza and help out the planet…then why not? This would definitely be the week to do it, because VegWeek 2013 is going on right now! It’s their fifth year of encouraging folks to give vegetarian/vegan a try. So give the earth a break, give your body a break…and bake this pizza!

One editorial note. I know Jon Stewart is not a fan of eating pizza with a fork. I furrow my brows and ponder this a bit. Hmm, I wonder if he’s ever tried a deep-dish pizza?

Because you can eat this pizza sans fork, but you may miss some of the vegan cheesy goodness if you do. And one more thing, this pizza heats up nicely in the toaster oven on day two…that is, if you end up with any leftovers!

Instructions

Pour the water in a small bowl and heat in the microwave about 11 seconds. You should be able to dip your finger in the bowl and not feel it's either too hot or too cold. Once the temperature is just right, add the yeast and sugar and stir. Set aside to proof the yeast, about 5 minutes. Once it's proven itself, add the vegetable oil. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt, and ground flax seed. Stir together, until well combined.

Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl with the flour and stir vigorously for several minutes. This is a nice, pliable dough so I was able to knead it right in the bowl for 5 - 7 minutes. You want to reach the point where you can make an impression with your thumb in the middle of the dough and the dough raises back. Pour the olive oil over the dough and turn it several times to ensure both the dough and the bowl are coated with oil. Cover and set aside to rise. It will need about 2 hours to rise.

Once the dough is ready, cover it with a large sheet of waxed paper and use a rolling pin to spread it out to the dimensions of your pan. This will fit a 12" deep dish pizza pan. Make sure you allow the dough to fit up the sides of the pan a bit to create a sort of deep-dish pizza bowl! Set aside to prepare your toppings.

Next, place the thinly sliced vegan Jack cheese across the bottom of the dough. Cover that with the shredded vegan mozzarella. Spread it out so you don't see any of the pizza dough coming through.

Place the chopped tomatoes in a food processor along with the basil, oregano, and vegan parmesan. Pulse for just a few seconds. You want the tomatoes to be fairly ground, but still with lots of texture. Spread the tomato mixture over the cheese.

Spread the chopped slices of vegan pepperoni evenly over the top of the tomato mixture.

Sprinkle with additional vegan parmesan.

Place in your prepared oven for 20 - 25 minutes. The dough should be showing through with a nice golden color. Allow the pizza to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Marly

Hi Deborah. Thanks for letting me know about the link. It should be fixed now. You can substitute nutritional yeast flakes for vegan parmesan. Also, I do have a recipe for vegan a vegan mozzarella sauce. It probably won’t be exactly the same as the commercial products you can buy, but it might be good while you’re waiting for those to make it out your way.

Ashley

Hi! This recipe looks great! I’m thinking about switching to a Vegan diet after I finish the Master Cleanse and pizza is my GREATEST weakness. Do you happen to have the nutritional info for this recipe, like the serving size and calories per serving?

Marly

Hi Ashley
I put together some information to come to an estimate of calories. Let’s start with the pizza in its original, meat-based form. You can expect to consume 413 calories per slice and that includes 17.2 grams of fat (9 of those saturated) and 53 mg of cholesterol. From what I can tell, the vegan version comes at a price of 331 calories per slice, 14 grams of fat (6 saturated) and 0 mg of cholesterol. That’s a savings of over 81 calories, 3 grams of fat, and 53 mg of cholesterol per serving! I hope this is helpful!
Marly

Leah

Hi Marly,
How do you get your cheese to turn out perfect? Whenever I attempt to make vegan pizza, the cheese always turns into liquid, which is really unappetizing to me. Your pizza looks like it turned out just right!

Thanks,
Leah

Marly

Hmm, I will have to think about this one. With vegan cheese I usually try to keep the temperature low – around 350 – 400F. Then if I find it doesn’t melt to my liking, I will crank up the heat for the final few minutes of baking. You could also try covering it with a sheet of aluminum foil to protect it from too much heat. Let me know if this works!

Anita C.

I tried this tonight and it came out great! I didn’t have a pizza pan, so I used a nonstick lasagna pan. The crust was thicker, but it was just fine. I thought it would need a little salt, and I added some, but it didn’t need it, so I would recommend not adding any. The cheeses and pepperoni are salty enough. I thought I had enough tomatoes, and when I realized I didn’t (and didn’t feel like going to the store), I grabbed some diced tomatoes and used that minus the juice to make up the difference. This recipe was a pleasant surprise, I would definitely do it again.

Marly

Salt is always a little touchy. It’s so easy to overdo it!! I prefer to kind of “undersalt” things and then allow each person to add more to their individual serving. So glad you liked the pizza!! Like the changes you made too!

Named Best Vegan Blogger on Pinterest

About

This site is about life: Namely, my life, your life, a dog's life. You name it! Oh, and it's about names, too. That's because one of my passions is names; especially people and their names. I'm also vegan and I'm on a quest to "veganize" and share the resulting recipes with my family of readers.